Neglected ArtistResurfaces in Eastern France “Maleck en Bleu” (1898), by Albert André. Collection Musée d’Art Sacré de Pont-Saint-Esprit. All rights reserved. For anyone who has heard of the French city of Montbéliard, one word immediately springs to mind at the … Read More
C’est Ironique Sign of the Weeque Spotted by reader Mary Beth Dietrick I have decided this week to suspend my usual policy of making fun of bad English on French shop signs and, in the name of equality, make fun … Read More
C’est Ironique Sign of the Weeque Photo: J.P. Bruneau Oh dear. This in-your-face fast-food place on Boulevard Soult is making an unpalatable pun either on bouffe, the French slang word for “food” or “meal,” or on boeuf, the French non-slang … Read More
At first I thought it was another case of hilarious miscomprehension of an English word (see David Jaggard’s “Paris Shop Signs” series on this subject), but one glance at the photo (below) on the Facebook page of the restaurant Balls … Read More
In the course of scouring the streets of Paris looking for material that qualifies as Ironique (see inadvertently funny shop signs Part I and Part II), I sometimes come across something that makes me say to myself, “Gee, it’d be … Read More
Saint Jean de Luz, a chic Basque fishing port on the Atlantic coast near the Spanish border, has a distinguished history: none other than Louis XIV was married in 1660 in its Église Saint Jean Baptiste to Maria Teresa of … Read More
I’m not sure if this is a strictly Parisian phenomenon or if it happens everywhere, but Paris is full of restaurants and food shops owned by former bankers or other high-paid professionals who became fed up with their gilded cage … Read More
One of Paris’s oft-forgotten treasures is the Sèvres National Ceramics Museum and Manufactory, where precious Sèvres porcelain is still made and a collection of centuries’ worth of ceramics from around the world is on show. To inaugurate its new Savoir-faire … Read More
December is upon us and the yearly holiday-shopping marathon has begun. If you’re searching for gifts that are classically Parisian without being kitschy, check out our list of products in all price ranges made in the Paris region to put … Read More
Here’s a simple three-step experiment that anyone can do in the comfort of their own home: Step 1: Go to Paris. Step 2: Throw a rock. Step 3: See what you hit. And here’s the answer: you will hit a … Read More
